Vibrating Hard Drives :(

NomNom

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So I recently got my new pc case which is a CoolerMaster Storm Scout and after spending the whole afternoon just wrestling with the cables and everything, I now find myself in in a situation where the hard drives in my case (2 of them) are making such a noise vibrating that it is driving me insane.. i

:cry:

Is there any way to stop or at least minimize this? I can provide photos of the setup if required.

The case comes with the plastic brackets that you snap on the the sides of the hard drives and slide them into the bays.
 
Might sound cheesy... but you can buy some of that rubber cushioning tape from a Motor Spares place. It is normally used to cushion car doors that need sealing or insulating from vibration. I think you can also get it from Game. It comes in a round roll with a white wax paper backing. The rubber itself is grey. It is sticky on one side.

Cut it into smaller slices and place it down the bottom sides of your drives between the drives and the housing. Do not cover the PC Board of your hard drive or the top middle of your hard drive. It should only go one the top or bottom sides of your drive. You should still have some air flow over the top middle and bottom middle of your drive. It will be a tight fit sliding your drive back into the bay... but at least it will be cushioned.

Try to figure out where exactly the vibration is coming from... and try to cushion those areas. You can also use the thin Cable ties to tighten some parts of your case that are loose.
 
Rubber or silicone washers/grommets?

I was thinking this but where to put them? between the brackets and the hard drive or between the bays and the brackets

Might sound cheesy... but you can buy some of that rubber cushioning tape from a Motor Spares place. It is normally used to cushion car doors that need sealing or insulating from vibration. I think you can also get it from Game. It comes in a round roll with a white wax paper backing. The rubber itself is grey. It is sticky on one side.

Cut it into smaller slices and place it down the bottom sides of your drives between the drives and the housing. Do not cover the PC Board of your hard drive or the top middle of your hard drive. It should only go one the top or bottom sides of your drive. You should still have some air flow over the top middle and bottom middle of your drive. It will be a tight fit sliding your drive back into the bay... but at least it will be cushioned.

Try to figure out where exactly the vibration is coming from... and try to cushion those areas. You can also use the thin Cable ties to tighten some parts of your case that are loose.

I will give this a try thanks :)

more lube .. ?

?
 
Hey NomNom. Don't let those hard drives vibrate at the same frequency! According to the Mythbusters it will destroy that new case off yours.
:D
 
I thought I'd be cleaver and take the 8 rubber washers that come with the case that were supposed to be used for the side panel fans and use them for the hard drives. I put them in between the brackets and the hard drives but now it makes more noise :cry:
 
I thought I'd be cleaver and take the 8 rubber washers that come with the case that were supposed to be used for the side panel fans and use them for the hard drives. I put them in between the brackets and the hard drives but now it makes more noise :cry:

Eish I feel for you man. It is not a cheap skate case!.
Maybe you must try Gary's idea and to be even cheesier(if that is a word?) maybe you can use some silicone sealant and apply it with a gun or something?
 
Something's missing. The CM cases come with the plastic drive bay clip thingies and they have rubber grommets that keep the drives from vibrating. They really fit tight when you click them in.
 
Something's missing. The CM cases come with the plastic drive bay clip thingies and they have rubber grommets that keep the drives from vibrating. They really fit tight when you click them in.

they don't help in my case :( and they are plastic not rubber last time I checked :D
 
they don't help in my case :( and they are plastic not rubber last time I checked :D

That's why I say something's missing from the chassis you got, the HDD fit really tight if you fit them. Check when you unclip the black piece that the HDD is in if there is a white washer inbetween the metal clip and the casing - this clips into the HDD screw holes. You only tighten the 2 in the middle with screws. The front and back just clip in but the white grommets keep it really tight when you slide the HDD housing into the bracket.
 
That's why I say something's missing from the chassis you got, the HDD fit really tight if you fit them. Check when you unclip the black piece that the HDD is in if there is a white washer inbetween the metal clip and the casing - this clips into the HDD screw holes. You only tighten the 2 in the middle with screws. The front and back just clip in but the white grommets keep it really tight when you slide the HDD housing into the bracket.

Ah yes I was so daft I didn't realise that there were rubber washers in bedded in those brackets, so what I did was move the hard drives together since they were one slot apart, and now the vibrating noise seems to have mostly disappeared. :) Thanks for the help

Just something else I am also wondering about this case, not sure if you also have one or not, I am thinking of getting 2 more red led fans for the side panel, will it be possible to wire them to also have their led's switch on and off with the button at the top? I am thinking of paying an electrician to do it for me.
 
Lifehacker: Silence Your Hard Drive with Elastic Suspenders for an SPCR article but, in pictures:

no-vibe-3.jpg
...you're on your own for cooling though! :p
 
I'm not 100% sure but I think the front LED fan's cables run to the LED switch and connects with a clip type connector onto the male end of the LED switch, just trace the wire and check. I'm sure you could splice them together and have them run off the one control.

I don't have one but I've installed a few Coolermaster chassis. Really great chassis. Love the cable management.
 
Thanks to SPCR, I went the elastic suspension a few years ago, using some climbing rope bought from an outdoor store - the type with rubber cores and a woven shell. My Antec case has a removable HDD cage, so I could mount the lot in that space, using HDD screws and garden-variety green dustbin-ties. No more HDD vibrations!
 
NomNom, I had the very same issue recently, ended up taking out the one drive which was the worst of the two, I couldn't take it anymore.
 
Suspended hdds are best...except it messes with the hdd temp quite a bit. They are designed to shift heat to the case on the sides where the screws are.

A normal hdd shouldn't be *that* loud though. Sounds like something is off...resonance or something.
 
No way to just stick some screws in instead of the brackets?
 
Suspended hdds are best...except it messes with the hdd temp quite a bit. They are designed to shift heat to the case on the sides where the screws are.

A normal hdd shouldn't be *that* loud though. Sounds like something is off...resonance or something.

I suspended mine in the path of my front intake fan and have no heat issues
 
NomNom, I had the very same issue recently, ended up taking out the one drive which was the worst of the two, I couldn't take it anymore.

Shame dude I feel your pain, I have noticed that the one hard drive is more noisy than the other, that's Samsung for you, other is a Western Digital.

Suspended hdds are best...except it messes with the hdd temp quite a bit. They are designed to shift heat to the case on the sides where the screws are.

A normal hdd shouldn't be *that* loud though. Sounds like something is off...resonance or something.

Problem for me though is that I go to Lans now and then and this method would be a disaster since my case basically has wheels.

No way to just stick some screws in instead of the brackets?

The bay inside the case doesn't support screws, seen here:

imageview_php.jpg
 
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